French Vanilla Butter Cake
A super moist and super tender vanilla-packed cake.
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Tender, delicate, and full of vanilla flavor, this French Vanilla Butter cake is here to take over the coveted yellow cake recipe spot in your recipe box! A simple cake is packed full of vanilla, and a crème fraîche frosting amplifies the cake with a light and airy topping.
It’s hard to describe French vanilla, but it generally pertains to an ice cream flavor that uses more egg yolks than its classic vanilla counterpart. Here, this cake delivers the same flavors as that famous ice cream.
The key ingredients that make this cake stand out are the butter and eggs. And while yes, all cakes generally have butter and eggs to some degree, the ratio of butter and eggs is higher than average or in relation to the dry ingredients. While the one cup of butter and one cup of sugar looks like an even 1:1 ratio, by weight, there is more butter than sugar, making for a richer cake.
Don’t skimp on the vanilla; this is, after all, a French vanilla cake.
While the cake is cooling, the frosting can be quickly assembled.
Crème fraîche, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla are whipped until firm and doubled in volume. If you can’t find crème fraîche, you can easily substitute it with cream cheese or mascarpone.
French Vanilla Butter Cake is the perfect tender, fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth cake. The cake is rich without being heavy.
This whipped frosting is so good tasting that you could have it by itself as is! But when it partners up with this cake, it’s a perfect creamy but airy match.
French Vanilla Butter Cake
Yield(s): Makes 1 2-layer 8-inch cake
40m prep time
30m cook time
1h 30m inactive
you're making mealtime meaningful.
For the Cake:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
For the frosting:
- 6 ounces crème fraîche, room temperature (you can also use cream cheese or mascarpone cheese)
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and spray 2 8-inch cake pans with baking spray, line the bottoms with parchment paper, spray again, and set aside.
- In a bowl whisk flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
- In another bowl beat butter and sugar together until light, pale, fluffy.
- Gradually add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in vanilla.
- With the mixer on low, gradually add the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
- Divide the batter between the 2 prepared pans, tapping the pans lightly against the counter to remove any big air bubbles.
- Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean with a few moist, not wet, crumbs. Let the cake cool in the pans for 10 minutes and before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.
To make the frosting and finish the cake:
- In a bowl combine crème fraîche, whipped cream, sugar, and vanilla, whipping everything until smooth and doubled in volume.
- Cut off the cake tops if the cake layers are too round. Set one cake layer on a cake plate, apply half of the frosting, secure the second layer on top and apply the remaining frosting. Serve and enjoy!